[3] The Green Mosque was commissioned by Sultan Mehmed I Çelebi, who ruled from 1413 to 1421, after a fight against his brothers to reunite the Ottoman Empire.

[4] The mosque's construction was begun in 1412 and, according to the inscription over its entrance portal, it was completed in December 1419 or January 1420 (Dhu'l-Hijja 822 AH).

[7] Upon his death, Mehmed I was buried in a mausoleum called the Green Tomb, commissioned by his son and successor, Murad II, located within the complex.

[9] Hacı İvaz Pasha was also reported to have “brought masters and men of skill from foreign lands” to help with the mosque's construction, according to 15th-century historian Aşıkpaşazade.

[3] Another Persian inscription inside the royal loge above the entrance identifies Mehmed el-Mecnun ("Mehmet the Mad") as the artist who decorated the ceramics of the mosque.

[4][10] Scholar Patricia Blessing notes that the exact roles played by each person named in the inscriptions is still not certain, as the terminology used in these historical texts is not fully understood today.

[11] Due to the 7.5 magnitude Bursa earthquake of 1855, the complex underwent extensive renovations planned by French architect and artist Léon Parvillée, beginning in 1863.

Ahmet Vefik Paşa, the regional administrator of west Anatolia and a patron of the preservation of Ottoman cultural heritage, asked Parvillée to restore the major fourteenth and fifteenth century royal monuments of the city.

[13] Parvillée was well-versed in the main aspects of early Ottoman style due to his experiences living and working in the region as well as his extensive research of the subject.

In any case, it is documented that Parvillée had returned to Paris by 1867 to design and build the Turkish pavilion displayed in the Exposition Universelle.

From here, wide corridors, framed by Byzantine columns, extend in both directions, ending in staircases leading to the royal chambers.

A porch was designed but never built.Marble panels, a majority of which were replaced in the nineteenth century, overlay the mosque's edifice of hewn sandstone.

[25] This influence can also be observed in Timurid ceramics[23] and architecture in Central Asia, such as the mausolea within the Shah-i Zinda shrine complex.

[26] Moreover, an inscription above the mihrab designates the black-line tiles as amal-i ustādhān-i Tabrīz ("work of the masters of Tabriz"),[27] accompanied by a couplet from the Persian poet Sa'di.

[31] The recessed mahfils that flank the opening into the prayer hall are covered in similar dark green hexagonal wainscot tiles with gold decoration, with a large, intricate arabesque on each ceiling.

[32] More of these dark green hexagonal wainscot tiles, each decorated with a thick layer of gold overlay,[31] cover the large iwans flanking the prayer hall.

[31] In the prayer hall itself, dark green hexagonal and triangular tiles (including some nineteenth and thirteenth century replacements)[33] cover the lower portions of the walls.

Square black-line tiles, glazed in blue, purple, white, and yellow, cover the mihrab's interior with geometric motifs.

The two tabhane rooms connected to the central hallway, designed to provide lodging for travelers, contain carved plaster niches and ocaks (fireplaces with a tall hood).

[39][40] In addition to the sultan's burial, the mausoleum contains the tombs of his sons Mustafa, Mahmud, and Yusuf, as well as several women of his family and his nanny.